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SFO FLIGHTS UP; SAN JOSE, OAKLAND DOWN: The wobbly economy has delivered a bigger jolt to Oakland International Airport than to the other passenger airports in the Bay Area, with the East Bay airport suffering a nearly 19 percent decline in daily departures and a net loss of carriers. The airports in Oakland and San Jose have both lost daily departures over the last 12 months, according to officials at the transportation hubs. "This is in keeping with what we are seeing around the country," said Rosemary Barnes, a spokeswoman for Oakland airport. "Airlines have progressively higher fuel costs. People who used for fly quite often for leisure purposes no longer have the discretionary income to do so as much." The big beneficiary? San Francisco International Airport. That airport can offer direct flights to a growing number of major cities that no longer can be found via the airports in Oakland and San Jose. Air carriers apparently want to focus more on the big jetliner hubs in a quest to curb fast-rising expenses such as fuel costs. That can strip smaller airports of some flights. "We have three new domestic carriers in the past year, Southwest, Virgin America and JetBlue," said Mike McCarron, a spokesman for San Francisco airport. It also has added new international flights, he said.
DELAY WANTED FOR CHICAGO-BEIJING ROUTE: American Airlines has asked federal regulators for permission to delay its launch of new nonstop service between Chicago and Beijing for a year, citing the high price of jet fuel and other obstacles. American, the largest U.S. airline, filed its request Friday with the Transportation Department, making it the latest in a line of U.S. carriers seeking to delay China service. The Chicago-Beijing flights were scheduled to begin next April 9. American, a unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp., asked the Transportation Department for permission to begin the flights instead on April 4, 2010. In asking for the delay, American cited high fuel costs, the economy and "the extraordinary adverse market and operating conditions affecting the entire airline industry." U.S. airlines are expected to post multibillion- dollar losses this year as they battle soaring fuel prices and a weakening U.S. economy.
SAY 'TATA' TO WORLD'S CHEAPEST CAR PROJECT: Tata Motors suspended work indefinitely at a factory building the world's cheapest car, the company said Tuesday, following increasingly violent protests by farmers demanding the return of their land. No one has reported to work since Friday at the West Bengal Nano factory at the company's request, and some international staffers have gone home, the company said. Local farmers have staged protests for nearly two years, complaining they didn't receive sufficient compensation for the land where the factory was built. The demonstrations have escalated, with protesters trapping workers inside the factory last week. "The situation around the Nano plant continues to be hostile and intimidating. There is no way this plant could operate efficiently unless the environment became congenial and supportive of the project," the company said in a statement late Tuesday.
